Dutch authorities have detained three men with links to the Islamic State extremist group based on DNA evidence found on arms found at a French hideout, like reported by businessinsider.com. A fourth suspect linked to the case was already in a Dutch jail because of an unrelated incident.

The Dutch prosecution office said the arrests Monday of the three were linked to an apartment in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil that was rented by a French jihadist. Authorities found a big arms cache there on March 24, 2016, two days after the Brussels attacks that killed 32 people. Authorities were convinced the discovery had averted another extremist attack.

Dutch authorities said Tuesday they seized computers, mobile phones and notes, and in one house, a shotgun and a pistol.

19-year-old refugee charged with Berlin attack on Israeli Arab who was wearing Jewish skullcap for social experiment

A 19-year-old from Syria is on trial in Berlin over an assault in the German capital on an Israeli wearing a skullcap.

The young man is charged with bodily harm and slander. The April 17 attack caused nationwide outrage and fueled concerns over anti-Semitism in Germany.

German news agency dpa reports that the verdict could come later today.

The victim, an Arab Israeli who has said he isn’t Jewish but wore the skullcap as a personal experiment, caught the assault on video, showing the attacker whipping him with a belt while shouting “Yehudi!” — Arabic for “Jew.”

Prosecutors say the suspect was assigned to a home for refugees outside Berlin, but lived in the city without a fixed address. He turned himself in two days after the assault.

Anti-terror arrests surged to a new record high as Britain was hit by a wave of attacks amid a “step-change” in the momentum of the threat, like reported by talkradio.co.uk.

In the year to the end of March 2018, a total of 441 individuals were held as part of terrorism investigations – a rate of well over one a day.

This was the highest number of arrests in a year since data collection started in 2001, and an increase of 17% compared with the previous year.

The uptick was partly driven by police operations following the five attacks in London and Manchester between March and September last year. In total, 52 arrests were made after the incidents.

It also emerged that the total number of arrests linked to suspected terrorism-related activity in Britain since the 9/11 attacks in 2001 has now passed the 4,000 mark, standing at 4,182 as of the end of March.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the national policing lead for counter-terrorism, said: “With the terrorist attacks of 2017 we saw a genuine step-change in momentum.

“As a result, our operational activity increased to meet the new and emerging threats we now face.

“A year on and our activity continues to be at unprecedented levels; shown, not least, by the fact that, in the past year, working together with the security services we have stopped an average of one terrorist attack every month.

“Police, together with the security services are determined to make the UK as hostile an environment for terrorists as possible.”

There were increases across nearly all age groups compared with the previous year, with a record 27 arrests of under-18s.

The figures showed that 320 of the arrests were recorded in the international category, which covers suspected activity linked to or motivated by terrorist groups based outside the UK – such as Islamic State.

As of the end of March, 228 prisoners were in custody after being charged with or convicted of terrorism-related offences.

Counter-terror agencies say they have foiled 12 Islamist and four extreme right-wing plots since March last year.

According to Kosovo prosecutors an ethnic Albanian have been charged with joining extremist terror groups in Syria.  The man, a Kosovo citizen identified only as R.D., had gone to Turkey last month and tried to cross into Syria to join military organizations there, like reported by insidesyriamc.com.

At Kosovo’s request, Turkish authorities arrested him and extradited him back to Kosovo earlier this month. The defendant is accused of joining or taking part in extremist military groups and in military conflicts outside the country, charges that may bring him up to 15 years’ imprisonment.

Meaanwhile, the United Nations is urging authorities in Kosovo to have a clear strategy to deter potential fighters from joining Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq, and to offer more employment possibilities and education.

German authorities say they have arrested an 18-year-old Iraqi man member of the international extremist organization, the Islamic State group.

Federal prosecutors say Aqram A., whose full name was withheld on privacy grounds, was preliminary detained Wednesday in the southwestern Rhine-Neckar district.

Prosecutors said Thursday the man is suspected of joining the Islamic State group in 2014 in Mosul where he completed military training for approximately four weeks. During the ensuing period, he worked as a guard and prepared fighting positions for the Islamic State group. In the summer of 2015, the suspect took part in fighting near the Iraqi town Beiji.

He allegedly left Iraq in late 2015 and entered Germany in February 2016.

A terrorist who killed five people and wounded 14 others in a truck attack in Sweden has been jailed for life. Uzbek Rakmat Akilov was convicted of the terrorist murders and given a life sentence at a court in Stockholm today, like reported by standard.co.uk.

Akilov had said he wanted to punish Sweden for joining a coalition against Islamic State.

In January, he was charged with terror-related murder and attempted murder for the attack with a stolen beer truck on April 7 2017.

Brit Chris Bevington, a 41-year-old executive at Swedish music-streaming service Spotify, was among the victims, which also included a Belgian woman and three Swedes, including an 11-year-old girl.

Judge Ragnar Palmkvist said Akilov, 40, was the only suspect in the attack, and that prosecutor Hans Ihrman called him a “security risk to society” during his trial at the Stockholm District Court.

The prosecution had demanded a life sentence, while defence lawyer Johan Eriksson said his client had been co-operative throughout the investigation and should be given a time-limited sentence.

During the court proceedings that started on February 13 and ended on May 2, Mr Ihrman said that “Akilov took the right to determine the fate of so many people. Now it is the turn of the democratic rule of law to determine the fate of Akilov”.

After ploughing the truck into a crowd of shoppers on a busy shopping street and crashing into the upscale Ahlens department store in Stockholm’s city centre, Akilov also planned to blow himself up.

He failed, and caused a smaller explosion inside the truck when a suspected bomb made of five gas canisters with dozens of screws, blades and smaller metal objects went off.

Akilov then escaped via Stockholm’s subway system but was arrested hours later in a suburb.

He was found guilty of five counts of terror-related murder, 119 counts of attempted murder and 24 cases of endangering the life of others.

Judge Palmkvist said the fact that Akilov had been co-operative and had confessed did not have any influence on the lifetime sentence, which is the heaviest penalty in Sweden and is normally about 18 years.

The court sentenced Akilov to be expelled from Sweden after he serves his sentence and banned him from returning.

Akilov was born in Uzbekistan and worked there as a construction worker.

He came to Sweden in 2014 and applied for asylum, claiming he had been persecuted.

His application was rejected and he was ordered to leave Sweden in December 2016.

Instead he went underground, eluding the authorities’ attempts to track him down.

Sweden’s domestic intelligence agency has said it had nothing indicating that he was planning an attack.

On April 6 – the eve of the attack – Akilov swore allegiance to IS.

During the trial, evidence showed how Akilov used 53 Sim cards and social media – including WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, Facebook and Zello – to communicate with others about his activities.

Akilov has said he proposed carrying out an attack in Stockholm to IS on their behalf. It was not clear whether the group had accepted his offer.

Investigators have found internet chat logs with unknown people in which Akilov discussed becoming a martyr.

They have also found a memory card with execution videos and thousands of photos, including one of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

International senior officials and experts have gathered in the capital of Albania to discuss coordinated efforts in the fight against Islamic terrorism, like reported by foxnews.com.

The gathering on combating violent extremism held in Tirana was the first consultation held outside Jordan as part of the Aqaba Meetings, launched by Jordan’s King Abdullah II in 2015.

The king, who is dealing with large protests in Jordan, was expected at the meeting but replaced by Prince Ghazi Bin Mohammad.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and his counterpart from Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, also were among the some 200 political, security, religious and academic leaders at the conference organized by the Albanian and Dutch governments.

Themes included security challenges, how to enhance military coordination and cooperation, and the exchange of experiences and intelligence to combat terrorism.

MI5 and police will be alerted to suspicious purchases more quickly under the Government’s new blueprint for tackling terror, like reported by talkradio.co.uk.

On Monday, Home Secretary Sajid Javid will outline plans to work more closely with businesses to eradicate the “safe spaces” that are exploited by violent extremists.

He is expected to say: “That includes faster alerts for suspicious purchases, improving security at crowded places across the UK, and reducing the vulnerability of our critical infrastructure.”

Ministers want firms to raise the alarm as quickly as possible if they have evidence of unusual transactions – such as someone stockpiling large amounts of chemicals or acting suspiciously when hiring a vehicle.

The move reflects concern over a sharp reduction in the timeframe between the conception and execution of terror plots as attackers are radicalised to the point of violence within days or weeks.

Giving his first keynote speech on security since his appointment, Mr Javid will warn there has been a “step-change” in the threat.

He will argue that Daesh – also known as Islamic State – and the extreme right-wing are “more similar than they might like to think”, saying: “They both exploit grievances, distort the truth, and undermine the values that hold us together.

“And there’s one other thing that Islamists and the far right have in common. As a Home Secretary with a name like Sajid Javid – I’m everything they despise.

“So the way I see it, I must be doing something right.”

Mr Javid will use the address to announce details of the Government’s latest counter-terror strategy, known as Contest.

A huge exercise was launched across government, intelligence agencies and policing to identify new measures to stop atrocities after five attacks hit the UK in less than six months.

The new strategy will:

-Detail plans for MI5 intelligence on some individuals of concern to be shared more widely across government, local authorities and policing

-Firm up proposals to increase maximum sentences for some offences, such as repeatedly viewing terror content online

-Outline a new approach to managing the rising threat from extreme right-wing violence

-Set out steps to enhance the use of data to track suspects by police and MI5

-Emphasise the need for collaboration with the private sector on tackling terrorist material online

-Reaffirm the Government’s commitment to the Prevent anti-terror scheme.

Read more at http://talkradio.co.uk/news/terror-suspects-be-monitored-more-closely-under-new-plans-18060426463#6ww0AADvsmJBVZRv.99

France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor says about 40 convicted terrorists are due to be released from French prisons this year and next, calling the re-entry into society of the unrepentant ones a “major risk”, like reported by foxnews.com.

Francois Molins said on BFM television that France still faces a significant threat from homegrown supporters of the struggling Islamic State group.

Molins estimated that 600 to 700 French extremists are unaccounted for in the areas of Iraq and Syria claimed by IS, though many have probably been killed. He says authorities think some organizers of the November 2015 attacks in Paris are among the dead in the Mideast.

Molins says the investigation of the simultaneous attacks at the Bataclan concert hall, Paris cafes and the national stadium that killed 130 people should conclude next year.

The federal government has announced that over a thousand people have joined ISIS from Germany to date, and said: “We don’t have information on many of these individuals. We only know that some 170 of them are dead”, like reported by anfenglish.com.

Opposition party Die Linke (The Left) had submitted a written inquiry for the Federal Government to respond to regarding the number of German citizens who joined ISIS and their current situations.

The Ministry of Interior Affairs responded to inquiry led by MPs Ulla Jelpke, Dr. André Hahn and Gökay Akbulut, and announced that over a thousand people have left Germany to go to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIS in recent years.

35% of the people identified in the ministry response as “radical Islamists” are German citizens and 27% have dual citizenship status. According to the information provided by the ministry, the biggest group among the gang members with foreign origins are Turkish citizens.

Turkish citizens are also the biggest group, with 21%, who hold another, non-German citizenship. Citizens of Morocco are in second place, while other significant groups were citizens of Tunisia, Afghanistan and Syria.

The Ministry of Interior Affairs announced that they have information on only a small percentage of German citizens who left for Syria and Iraq, and that most of them remain unaccounted for. The ministry said, “We have information that some 170 among these people were killed in combat or otherwise.”

According to the Ministry of Interior Affairs, the “jihadists” who went from Germany to Iraq and Syria joined groups like Jabhat Al Nusra, Junud Al Sham, Hai´at Tahrir al-Sham and Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiy, as well as ISIS.